ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has given two extra days to students seeking admission to private medical colleges to submit their applications.

Moreover, parents have been directed to seek guidance from the council to avoid any loss of time and money as students getting admissions bypassing the PMDC rules would not be registered.

There were complaints that private medical colleges admitted students after receiving donations.

On October 27, the PMDC got a notification published in the Gazette of Pakistan under which admissions to private medical colleges would be carried out through public-sector universities. However, private colleges were not in favour of the policy and four petitions were filed with different courts against the notification.

On November 12, a student seeking admission on seats allocated for overseas Pakistanis/foreign students obtained a stay order against the notification from the Lahore High Court (LHC). On November 18, the court amended its stay order and allowed the admission process on 85pc of general seats. The issue of 15pc seats for the foreign students would be decided later.

PMDC executive council member Dr Amir Bandesha told Dawn that though the stay was vacated on general seats, there was a possibility that some students would not be able to submit their applications as the last date for the submission of admission forms was November 14. So, the council has given two more days to the admission seekers to submit their forms to the public sector medical university concerned on November 21 and 22.

Dr Bandesha said the council would implement its decision of admitting students to private colleges through the public sector universities in letter and spirit. Or students seeking admission to private medical universities would be admitted through an entry test conducted by a testing service such as the NTS, he said.

Published in Dawn November 21st, 2016